Christmas 2010: Adventures with our First Advent Calendar House
I miss personal blogging. I miss the old way I used to blog. I am so behind that it almost seems hopeless. I stopped posting regular family pictures around July and never picked it up again. I haven’t even written Baby GC’s birth story. I want to get back into it, so for now, I think I will skip the summer and fall and only go back as far as the beginning of Advent 2010.
We had a very slow, low-key month of December. I made the choice not to do many of our annual traditions. I wanted peace without commotion. I was tired of feeling tired, so we did very little. It still felt very much like Christmas.
One new idea that proved to be quite fun was our new Advent calendar house. After Christmas last year, I ordered it on EBay. It sat in its box all year, so it was rather amusing when we opened it. Do you notice anything unusual about it? I didn’t until the children mentioned it.
Our Advent Calendar House
I bought some secret things. (The treats were often things we would do anyway, or candy from the Bulk Barn, or things we could have saved for Christmas presents. I had lots of ideas we didn’t even use.)
And I made a list of hiding places. (Examples: Look in the organ… Look in the drawer under the sock monkey… Look in the doll house… Look by the doll on the stairs… Look behind the ceramic Christmas tree… Look in the front bench… Look in the fridge… Look by the Cascade… Look on the computer desk… Look in the bathtub… Look in the black cabinet in the bathroom… Look on the dryer…)
Each day of December, I would either stuff a small treat or a “Look under/in/behind” note behind one of the doors. Instead of getting it ready all at once, I would do it one day at a time, so the most appropriate treat would go on the most convenient day.
Day 1: pack of crackling candy to share (funny)
Day 2: four lollipops and four Double Bubble gum (to divide among four children)
Day 3: four chocolate loonies
Day 4: Decorated wooden Christmas tree ornament crafts with marker and glitter
Day 5: Made T.V. advertisments with video camera – Sham Wow, Goldline
This was fun. We spent additional time watching home videos. (It makes me feel bad that I didn’t take more during the past few years. I have hardly ANY of Baby GC, but I guess it doesn’t matter.)
Day 6: bag of peanut M&Ms to share
Day 7: four chocolate peanut butter balls and four mints
Day 8: four mints and four rockets
Day 9: four pieces Hubba Bubba gum
Day 10: chocolate rocks (It took them a while to figure out you could eat them. It looked like a bag of real stones.)
Day 11: Ice Cream Moon Sand
The three middles really enjoyed this project.
Playing Moon Sand
See Baby and cat and lights?
I was getting ready to put the lights on the real tree.
Day 12: Decorated Gingerbread houses with Daddy
Derek is always responsible for the construction of the gingerbread houses.
Our Gingerbread Houses 2010
Day 13: Gum that tastes like SOAP. I can’t let them get TOO spoiled. It was hilarious, but they were mad and thought it was a dud. ROFLOL After, I told them if they had reacted like good sports, they would have got something else, but… FAIL… ?! (To clarify, for the biblically minded, it was a joke, not a character test… and they read the label before they tried it.)
Day 14: foam sticker wreath craft with glitter glue, one KitKat to share
Christmas wreath foam craft
Day 15: watched Ramona and Beezus on PayPerVu
I knew C9 would like this especially. I think she has read all the Beverly Cleary books by now. It will be a sad day when something happens to our cat. I LOVED all the baby wearing in the movie! Even Ramona was carrying around her baby sister in a forward facing carrier.
Day 16: four candy canes
Day 17: four lollipops and four Double Bubble gum
Day 18: Three oldest went to Voyage of the Dawn Treader in 3D with Daddy… L6 watched Cats and Dogs 2 on PayPerVu
I didn’t want to take Baby GC to Voyage of the Dawn Treader because it was only available in 3D. There is nothing worse than a seeing a 3D movie without the glasses, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to keep them on the baby, and she LOVES to watch the big screen, so I chose to skip the movie.
Day 19: The middles painted plaster tree ornaments with me, Derek, and his brother who happened to stop by.
Painting Christmas Tree Ornaments
Decorating chocolate cupcakes with icing
and Christmas sprinkles (with Derek’s brother)
Day 20: I forget what it was.
Day 21: two Kit Kats and two O’Henrys
Day 22: four pieces of Hubba Bubba gum
Day 23: four kinds of juice cans
Day 24: made things out of clay
Making things out of clay on Christmas Eve
Some of our clay creations
We had a nice, relaxing Christmas Eve.
Day 25: four mints
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Love that you got a picture of Darren and his cupcakes!! Too funny!
LOL!!
Oops. I forgot to get his permission to post his picture for the world to see! (Usually I do, but since it was side on…)
We had fun!!
When Darren happened to drop by, we gave him no choice but to join in. It was fun.
Love all the pictures! Wish I could’ve dropped by to decorate cupcakes too. We helped decorate the same Gingerbread village with S and W, but without the help of an engineer, we had structural difficulties… I almost bought that exact same advent calendar house! I love it! I guess we do have similar taste
But the one I looked at actually had Dec 14th… and only one Dec 16th.. By the way, nIce SpongeBob.